OK – Put 'Em Up!

I think this is a rant, but let's find out together.

Sometimes we just have to fight!
I wonder why. We should be able to get along. Shouldn't we?

We share a planet. Also a Nation, a City, and a neighborhood. Sometimes we even share the same house or the same bed. Come on people.

It is truly a magnificent monument to our individual and collective arrogance to believe one person's opinion is tantamount to a truth on a pedestal so elevated that another person's opinion cannot hope to ascend to a reasonably equivalent height.

Here is the crux of the problem. You think you know what is best for the world. I think I know what is best for the world. That person over there thinks he/she knows what is best for the world. None of  us might be right or wrong. It's when we act on our opinions that things get all screwed up.

It would probably work better between us all if we agreed it is acceptable for you to be you and me to be me. Whatever I think. Whatever you think. If you think cars are better than buses and I think I want to use group transportation, that should be ok. Sound like it could be right, right?

What about public toilets? What about sexual orientation? If I want to understand myself as a male-born-a-male and you want to understand yourself as a male-born-a-female, we can use the same bathroom because you can enter a stall. Oh crap! I can't decide for you that you must always use a stall, can I?

Or, what about sexual identification? Let's say I decided to identify as a male-born-female and use the female bathroom (I am a male—by the way), you will be comfortable with that won't you?

If I want to refer to you as a black (assuming you are negroid) is that ok or must you be an african-american... How do I refer to you if you are a negro from India? Am I actually being this insensitive? If I call you an Indian, how does anybody else know I am not referring to you as an american Indian. Can you refer to me as a white man, Caucasian, or even a cracker? Why are policemen called Pigs, and why is there such a big deal about not serving them at Starbucks?

Are you a terrorist? Am I? Reading this article, I sort of sound like one to me. I mean, really, should it matter to me that you won't drink wine, or won't wear taffeta, or only eat vegetables, or think my choice for President of my country sucks, or don't think I have any reasonable thoughts if the ones I have aren't the same as yours, or shouldn't have the right to live because I am Jewish?

How in the world do we get past these kind of differences? Is it even possible? Can we get along? Really, I wonder. It is a serious question. Do we really need to kill each other? Is that the only option?

Ok, then, ten paces, turn, and fire.